Hinchcliffe's ascension is why City-Country should remain, says Daley

COUNTRY coach Laurie Daley has described Ryan Hinchcliffe as the perfect example of why the City-Country clash needs to remain a permanent fixture.

At this time every year, the debate about whether the annual clash should be scrapped from the schedule rears its head, but Daley is convinced it has a place in the game.

Hinchcliffe just missed out on a spot on the Kangaroos bench for tomorrow night's Test in Auckland, overlooked for Manly's Daly Cherry-Evans, but Daley is not convinced the Melbourne utility would have been in the running if it wasn't for his man-of-the-match performance in Albury last year.

''It's one of those games where if you play well, you might not necessarily be chosen, but you will be there in the back of people's minds, but if you play poorly it's hard then to go on and get selected,'' Daley said.

''People talked about Hinchy being a possibility for an Australian spot this year. I don't know whether he'd have been in that position if it wasn't for City-Country last year. I don't know whether people would be able to say he can handle the step up.

''The fact that he played well in that game, and finished last year and started this season well, he's in the situation he is in now where he's a valued member of the Country side and a possibility, a big possibility, of going on and playing more rep footy this year.''

Hinchcliffe, who will start the match in Mudgee on Sunday at hooker after the withdrawal of Newcastle dummy half Danny Buderus, also feels strongly about the game.

The Temora junior, who will shift into the back row at some stage on Sunday to allow Daley to bring Josh McCrone into the match, recognises the significance of the game to the Country people, but also admitted it was an important stepping stone for emerging players, crediting the match for bolstering his representative credentials.

''It got people to take a little bit more notice of me,'' he said. ''I didn't think I did anything different to what I have been doing the last few years down in Melbourne, but the one thing it did, people just stood up and took a bit more notice, that was the difference to any other game. It was a really big springboard for me.''

At 27, Hinchcliffe is hardly the representative rookie many assume he would be.

He made his debut for Canberra in round eight of 2007, playing just 21 games in two seasons at his junior club.

He took time to blossom but Craig Bellamy gave him a chance, and Hinchcliffe, who played most of his junior football at five-eighth, has not let him down.

He has only missed one game in each of the past three seasons at the Storm and is held in high esteem by his coach.

It was Bellamy who handed Hinchcliffe his NRL lifeline, calling the former Raider and offering him a position at the Storm before the 2008 season.

''I was in and out of first grade at Canberra and, one day, I just got a call from Craig and he said there might be an opportunity for me if I came down and did a pre-season and see how things go,'' he said.

''I did the pre-season and I ended up playing in the grand final in 2009. But at that stage, when he rang me, I didn't want to leave Canberra. My family was close by and I had been there for four years and made some pretty good mates.

''Hindsight's a wonderful thing and, looking back, it's the best thing I've ever done. It really gave me an opportunity to better myself.''